


you can be damn sure we'll avenge it

by avid_reader1



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:15:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avid_reader1/pseuds/avid_reader1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda Maximoff had not been like this, before. Then there's a bomb, two deaths, and a name. This changes her, makes her into something different. Something alien. Something dangerous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you can be damn sure we'll avenge it

When Wanda is 10 years old she discovers weakness. Trapped under the ruins of their home with nothing for company but her brother and the doom Stark's name arose in her. In weakness and fear, she discovers vengeance. She discovers rage. 

Wanda Maximoff entered that building a child and leaves it something else. A version of herself she didn't know she could be capable of. 

She leaves it a killer. 

"We will destroy him," she says to her brother, Pietro with his knobbly knees and watery eyes. Though he is older, she feels the anger rise in her chest and it puffs her up. It makes her bigger than her twiggy arms and flat chest make her seem. 

"We will destroy Tony Stark and make him feel what we felt."

\--

Wanda uses her rage to warm her on cold nights. On days with no food, she hears the snarl of her stomach and simmers with rage too big for an eleven year old. On days without a roof above their heads, she huddles together with Pietro and lulls herself to sleep with the image of a bomb and the name Stark like a brand on her brain. 

She catches snippets of the man himself, when her and her brother wander the streets with no destination. He stand there, first with in a suit of silk, then a suit of metal, pretending to do the righteous work of the God of the world he helped destroy. 

Anthony Stark grins to an adoring crowd, innocently, almost sweetly. He speaks charming words, twirls his wrist and the world bows before him. Stark flies across the sky, a streak of red and gold and righteous vengeance. The world loves him. The worlds needs him, so they love him. 

Wanda spits on the ground and snarls to herself and Pietro a promise. She will not be so easily fooled. She will not be naïve. She will be strong. 

Wanda Maximoff will tear Tony Stark apart. With her bare hands if she has to. 

Wanda halts them on the sidewalk and makes Pietro stare into her eyes, so big and so bright. "Promise me, Pietro. Promise me you will never leave me, that we will do this together. We will bring an end to this man's reign of destruction and avenge our Mama, our Papa. Promise me."

His silver eyes hold hers and she knows, knows in her bones that he is with her. 

"I promise, Wanda."

\--

Their day comes. A man approaches them on a wretchedly beautiful day, snow on their cheeks and sun in their eyes. He offers them promises of glory, of power immeasurable. 

Wanda meets Pietro's eyes and, really, there isn't a question. 

The yes sits right on her tongue. 

\--

Before her power was white-hot rage. From there had stemmed her strength, her will to fight. But now, she has something much, much more powerful. 

Wanda is invincible and she wears it in scarlet. While her brother dances before her eyes in quicksilver (Quicksilver, what a fitting name for his quick wit and quicker feet), she wields scarlet like a dagger, wisps knife-like. Wanda feels red spill from her fingers and she relishes its rush. She dances like the lights she produces. She is twisted, she is spun, until she herself can twist and spin others like a champion. 

She endures the sterile white and plexiglass and bides her time. She is a Maximoff, with a legacy riding on her slim shoulders. She was promised power, glory, and she will have it. If it is not given willingly she will take it. 

Wanda Maximoff is no longer a mess of a ten-year old, a jumble of exposed nerve endings and fear and immense hatred. She is sharper, stronger, deadlier. She doesn't touch to harm. 

She touches to kill. 

\--

When the Avengers come, she widens her eyes in pretend fear to appease Strucker. Wanda hides behind her anger and tries not to let her eagerness show. This was it, for them. Her and Pietro, they had been waiting for this since that fateful day, since Stark decimated their lives. 

When they slip out, she discards the feeling of victory and uses her anger to sharpen her. She will need it, to face down this man who had been haunting her nightmares for what feels like forever. 

While Pietro runs outside to the other Avengers, she cloaks herself in the shadows and waits patiently. 

Seeing Stark in the flesh hurts, but touching his mind hurts more. She feels his horror, his shock as he stares into the faces of the teammates he failed. It hurts so much she has to relinquish her hold and let him take the sceptre, lets him run with his tail between his legs. Whatever pity she'd managed to scrounge up dissipates and her rage returns. 

Wanda curls her lips in distaste and begins, again, to wait. Her time will come again, and in that time, she will conquer. She will rid the world of Stark's stain. 

\--

Running through the streets of Seoul, surveying the damage she had done, she begins to feel horror. Staring into the eyes of a wounded, angry Captain America, regret stirs her heart and she knows she must start to make amends. 

His eyes would make nuns confess, she later whispers to Pietro, and is answered with hysterical laughter that sounds like a "yes". 

\--

As they are collecting themselves as to begin their final journey, Wanda waits until he is alone to approach him. 

"Before, in Wakanda, you said 'This isn't my life'."

Tony Stark turns and stares at her with red-rimmed eyes. "Come again?"

"You lied," she says, bulldozing on and using her rage to power her, something she hasn't done in a very long time. "You said that, but you lied. You have killed, Stark. You can use your armour to hide you, but your hands are red. Your sins are shielded but they are not forgotten." Wanda makes sure to look him squarely in the eye. "You are not innocent, you are a thief, a murderer, and I hate you. I hate you and I want to kill you."

To her mild surprise, he smiles. It's an ugly thing, doesn't reach his eyes. His shoulders are defeated. "Join the club, sweetheart. But mind you, there's a big line. You might have to wait a while."

He then stalks away, shoulders shaking minutely. 

Wanda had always ached to have this before her, Tony Stark vulnerable and torn apart. She has dreamed of seeing this for what feels like a lifetime. 

She wonders why it instead makes bile rise into her mouth and tears burn in her eyes. 

\--

Wanda fights till she is exhausted, and fights after that. The arrow man was right; it's her job, her fight. Her hands are greasy with the blood of their enemies and her heart is soaring. They haven't won yet, but maybe, just maybe--

Pietro grins through the holes on his chest and falls. 

She screams. Wanda screams so hard she obliterates everything in her path. Her head is screaming, her heart is screaming, despite the fact that for once there was silence beside her, empty of a presence. 

Wanda's soul screams as she grits her teeth and rips Ultron's heart from his broken metal shell. Vengeance had been what kept her going. That will never change. 

They save the day, but the day always ends. Wanda sits in a dark corner of the S.H.I.E.L.D air ship and watches scarlet dance before her. 

She doesn't think of how empty it is without the silver for company. She doesn't think about Pietro so hard her heart hurts. 

\--

Wanda doesn't heal, but the wound does scab over. She picks at her pain like a bruise, and it's the only thing that gets her out of bed. 

She is an Avenger and she has a world that needs avenging and a brother's memory to honour, to cherish. 

Shrugging on skin-tight scarlet, she doesn't worry. 

Vengeance had always been her real power, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Because feels. That's it, really. I have nothing else.


End file.
